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If you’ve been reading my reviews over the last five years, you’ll know this is the double-disc version of B:GK.
The Main Characters
--Batman/Bruce Wayne (voiced by Kevin Conroy) is a multi-billionaire by day, vigilante by night. He became Batman when his parents were viciously murdered in front of him. Bruce Wayne was dead, and the Batman was born, a vigilante who is dead set against the crime that is plaguing his city.
The Setting
Gotham City, a fictional town whose dark environment is perfect for the dark psychos that roam its streets. Of course, if you watch the movie you’ll see the Empire State Building and the Brooklyn Bridge, so I guess Gotham has a lot of the same buildings as NYC.
The Film (1:15:53)
This is 6 unique stories locked together, with each story done by a different director. First up is a group of skateboarders recalling stories of Batman tackling some criminal in a tale called, “Have I Got a Story for You.” Their version of Batman is at times very literal, and it harkens back to the mythical nature of early Batman (a robot, a real man-bat, a living shadow). Of course, as they tell their story the real Batman shows up.
The second story, “Crossfire,” starring GCPD favorite Crispus Allen, and a Renee Montoya look-alike. This story really looks at the ground level of Batman and his effect on Gotham. Crispus doesn’t trust Batman and hates running errands for the vigilante. Their tune quickly changes when they wind up in the middle of a turf war between the Russians and the Italians and Batman makes the save.
The third story, “Field Test,” has Lucius Fox and Bruce Wayne chatting about new technology. Bruce meets with a powerful industrialist who may be involved in the murder of a noted politician. Batman gets involved in the previously seen Russian/Italian mix, and uses a new anti-magnetic device to fight them. The device works well, too well, as someone else gets shot while Batman is fighting crime and he doesn’t want to put anyone else’s life in danger.
“In Darkness Dwells,” is our fourth story and it features a villain from the Batman Begins, Scarecrow, and to show this is a continuation of the first movie, they mention that night when Scarecrow went on the loose. Scarecrow starts using his fear gas to use Killer Croc, a regular human with a skin condition and who is very strong. Batman confronts Croc, then takes on Scarecrow and his band of goons. These are actually bloody battles, well deserving of its PG-13 rating.
Our fifth story is called, “Working Through Pain,” and continues with Batman having a bad injury on his stomach, with some gratuitous blood dropping. It’s a rather uninteresting story of Bruce Wayne trying to overcome pain.
“Deadshot” is the final chapter, and it features, Deadshot (d’uh!). Awesome fight sequence. Anyway, the DVD doesn’t list the six directors, so here they are in order (and you can thank me for sitting through the credits later): 1) Shojiro Nishimi, 2) Futoshi Higashide, 3) Hiroshi Morioka, 4) Yasuhiro Aoki, 5) Toshiyuki Kubooka, and 6) is blank because it isn’t in the credits.
Movie Review
This is an interesting concept for DC to experiment with. This is 6 interlocking Batman stories done by 6 different director’s, and done in what we US viewers refer to as an anime/manga style of animation. It’s not the Bruce Timm version of Batman we’re used to, either. This has some full on blood, including a decapitation scene. Of course, the one word that I come up with when describing this would be underwhelming. Yeah, it was alright, it had some slick animation, but I couldn’t get myself into the story. It was very fragmented (not really interlocking as promised, except for the fact that Batman is in it and a silly Russian/Italian mob thing mentioned in a few stories) but the story didn’t live up to the concept. Having only 15 minutes to develop a story wasn’t enough time. My favorite one was actually the first story, with the tales of the Batman vibe going on, and the awesome Deadshot presented, but the other stories were just average. Having different animation on each was a bit jarring, as there are many different versions of Batman and Bruce Wayne makes it tough to follow along as well. In the end, it was just okay, and I was expecting a lot more out of this. After DC had two awesome DVD’s (Superman Death & Return and JLA New Frontier), this was a major fall-off from that in terms of storyline quality. It had some blood-shed, probably to garner the PG-13 rating, which was another selling point as a grittier version. Gritty doesn’t necessarily mean good, as this shows. I would wait until it’s on Adult Swim to view.
DVD Features
A) Extras
---Disc One---
1) Audio Commentary
The commentary was recorded by Gregory Noveck (DC Comics Senior VP/Creative Affairs), Dennis O’Neil (former Batman editor) and Kevin Conroy (the voice of Batman in the feature). They talk about the story going backwards, but I couldn’t tell that the first time watching, and listening to them talk about it makes it a little more appealing, but it wasn’t evident off the bat (no pun intended). They note that to make sure people could recognize the different iterations of Batman and other characters, they used the same voice actors. Kevin tells a great story about working in NYC after 9/11 as a cook, and someone learning that Kevin was the voice of Batman and people getting really excited about it. Kevin, for those who didn’t know, Kevin did the voice in TAS. This was a decent commentary, nothing too great about it, but it was a good one to put on and listen do as I was doing other work. I thought Denny would’ve been more interesting thanks to his work on the comic but really wasn’t as good as I thought.
2) Wonder Woman Sneak Peek (10:28)
They couldn’t get the movie off the ground, so we get an animated feature instead. If it is anything like Superman: D&R or New Frontier, we should be in good shape. Hey, Rosario Dawson, Alfred Molina, sweet Jesus what a cast! Mimi from the Rent movie is going to be in the Wonder Woman DVD. Rosario will play Artemis, Virginia Madsen is Hyppolyte., Keri Russell is Wonder Woman, Nathan Fillion is Steve Trevor, Alfred Molina is Ares and he jokes that American writers think the British accent is villainous. We get a look at the origin of WW with some nice storyboards of the film, which look similar to the Timm DC animation we’re used to. Looks good, and I’ll pen this into my spring 2009 DVD purchase list.
3) Trailers
---A) The Dark Knight “Coming to Theaters” (2:08)
TDK came to theaters just a few weeks after this DVD was released I believe. Saw it, liked it a lot, didn’t think it was the greatest thing ever like some people did, but Heath Ledger is just fucking amazing.
---B) Journey to the Center of the Earth (2:08)
This is movie I’m not too interested in. It seems more a CGI vehicle than anything else, complete with corny dialogue.
---C) Lego Batman (1:15)
This definitely looks interesting, it’s a Lego Batman.
---D) Popeye the Sailor 1938-1940 – Vol. 2 (1:40)
This is remastered and looks really good for 70 year old cartoons.
---Disc Two---
1) A Mirror for the Bat: The Evil Denizens of Gotham City (35:44)
Heroes are always measured by their villains, and no one has the Rogue’s gallery that Batman does, and that’s a fact. This features looks at some of these villains, as told by many DC guys, including Gregory Noveck, Brian Azzarello, Greg Rucka, Paul Levitz, and Dan Didio among others. They pretty much run down all his main villains, and since Bats has so many they spend about 2 minutes on each. A funny part is someone likens Joker to a “mythological trickster,” which in Norse mythology is Loki, which is a noted Marvel villain and there is no way they’d mention that on a DC DVD! This was a very good look at the rogue’s gallery of the caped crusader.
2) Batman and Me, A Devotion to Destiny: The Bob Kane Story (38:23)
This starts with a film reel (like the old 1940’s theatrical commercials) on the early life of Bob Kane, creator of Batman. Tom Andrae (author of Batman and Me) and Mark Hamill talk about a young Bob Kane, a young Jew who changed his name early on. He didn’t do well in school but loved comics and saw it as a way to escape. Kane was influenced by screen heroes of the day, especially Zorro. They show old footage of Bob Kane on a cheesy 80’s interview show, and he talks about creating Batman. Elizabeth Kane (Bob’s widow, who looks very young here) talks about the influence of Bob’s father on him, as well as his mother. We see Bob’s cartoon career, first working on the Betty Boop cartoon, then getting a job at DC comics (working for $5 a page) and creating a super-hero called the Batman and being influenced by Da Vinci sketches. Jerry Robinson was added as a background artist a year after Batman started. Bill Finger was added as a writer, and he was a Bronx kid like Kane. Luckily, Kane’s father looked out for him and had legal representation so his character wasn’t stolen by the company (see: Superman). Stan Lee gets on here, too, saying Kane was bigger than life. Imagine that, Lee calling someone else bigger than life. Kane recounts a story of drawing Marilyn Monroe, and Vicki Vale was inspired by those sketches. We go through a dark period of the comic, a period which saw the book near cancellation but being saved thanks to the success of the TV show in the 60’s. We move to Kane’s autographs coming with a Batman sketch, his marriage (which Elizabeth believes was divinely set up), and Stan going to see the Batman premiere on stage and Bob joking that soon Stan would have his characters make it into films. Stan regrets that Bob didn’t stick around long enough to make it to Spider-Man so they could argue about which was better.
3) Bruce Timm Presents: Bonus Episode from Batman The Animated Series (1:26:28)
You really can’t go wrong with any episodes of TAS, with its great Fleischer inspiration and probably some of the best comic book stories put down in animated form.
---A) Legends of the Dark Knight (20:16)
This is a unique one. We have two kids tell different stories about seeing Batman and Robin, and how each view him and his legend differently. The first is B&R taking out the Joker, and looking a lot like the campy 1960’s TV show version. The second version is the great Frank Miller Dark Knight Returns version, and seeing this animated almost made me squeeeeel! No, it was really that cool. The kids meet the Dark Knight later on when Bats takes out Firefly. This was actually part of the second run of TAS, when it was called “The New Batman Adventures,” and this aired on 10/10/98.
---B) Heart of Ice (22:24)
This is the third ever episode, originally airing on September 7th, 1992. When you talk of Ice you know it’s all about Mr. Freeze. It’s his origin story, and it’s very well done here. I love the animation style of these shows, and the Freeze character is played so coldly by the voice actor it’s amazing.
---C) Over the Edge (21:33)
Also from the second run of TAS, this first aired on 05/23/98. This is an interesting one, where Gordon and the GCPD are in the Batcave chasing after Batman, knowing he’s Bruce Wayne. We look back at events that transpired, with Batgirl dying at the hands of Scarecrow and Gordon taking it very hard. He vows to take out Batman, even sending Bane after him. Batman ends up dying to save Jim, as Barbara wakes up from her comatose state. It was all a dream, but one as a viewer I really liked.
---D) I Am The Night (22:15)
This originally aired on 11/9/92. I gotta be honest, I wasn’t terribly impressed with this one, as it was a bit tougher to follow than the other ones. Basically, Batman’s playing around causes Gordon to get injured (since he stopped at Crime Alley to remember his parents) and Batman questioning his resolve to stay Batman. I wasn’t interested in the first act, but the second and third were really good.
B) Audio/Video
This is a “matted” widescreen presentation according to the box. Audio is Dolby Surround 5.1. I have to be honest, both were kind of underwhelming for me. The mix could’ve been better, with more of the middle and bass being used and the video at points seemed too grainy, something we shouldn’t have in an animated feature in this day and age. The CG used in the film was very evident and stuck out like a sore thumb, kind of like the old Spider-Man (1990’s) cartoons.
C) Packaging / Liner Notes
The packaging on this is just awesome. It comes in a slipcase where the die-cut holofoil cover folds open to reveal a cool lenticular image of Batman flying through the air. The back is holofoil, too. The DVD includes two leaflets, one for Batman the Lego videogame, and one with Batman: Death Mask on one side and a Black & White statue on the other. At least all three things being shilled are Batman stuff! One minor gripe I have is that it isn’t listed anywhere (except the credits) the 6 directors who did the 6 stories.
D) Easter Eggs
None
Overall Review
Previews start this off, including an anti-piracy DVD using the Wizard of Oz (0:50), 10,000 BC (0:33) and Appleseed Machina on DVD(1:56). I have to say, the main feature left me a bit underwhelmed and the first disc in general wasn’t as good as I was expecting. DC does a great job with animation, but you can’t hit them out of the park every time you’re at the plate. The second disc redeemed the actual DVD set, as you got an awesome look at Bob Kane, a good featurette on the Bat-villains, and four episodes of TAS never hurt anyone. Tough to recommend it on the basis of the main movie alone, but the stuff on the second disc is enough for a very mild recommendation.
Overall Rating
7.0
10.0 Perfect
9.0-9.5 Near Perfect, Highly Recommended
8.0-8.5 Really good disc, Recommended
7.0-7.5 Good DVD, Mildly recommended
6.0-6.5 Above Average DVD. Mildest of mild recommendations
5.0-5.5 Decent all around disc, but catch it on TV
4.0-4.5 Great Movie but horrible DVD
3.0-3.5 Horrible movie but great DVD
2.0-2.5 There’s at least some merit to this DVD, but not much.
1.0-1.5 Horrible DVD, don’t even bother
0.0-0.5 Worst DVD ever
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